Higher levels of productivity and increasing employee morale are just two of the positives that can be extracted from an effective office meeting.

That’s according to meetings expert Pete Alexandre, writing for business2community.co.uk. He believes in order to hold an effective meeting, the event leader needs to fully establish a meeting objective.

Before attendees even enter the pre-booked conference space for a meeting, the leader should define the purpose of the meeting, generate new ideas and decide whether they are communicating ‘information’ or ‘gathering status reports’.

“Once you know the meeting objective, you can set a detailed meeting agenda that breaks the meeting down into topics to be covered and time allotted for each area,” Alexandre claimed. “This will not only serve as a timeline to ensure your meeting runs according to schedule, it will also help participants prepare in advance.”

In addition, it’s important that meeting leaders make a note of the running time. Being careful of the time encourages others to follow suit and ensures everything runs according to plan, surveyshack.com added.

Finally, leaders should give attendees the opportunity to participate during the meeting if time allows. Alexandre added: “Feedback can be incorporated into every stage of the meeting, from planning to follow-up.”